ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

Ernie Salomon, a real man of the people: "we shall go to Salzburg, Austria, next spring. We shall have a lovely room with a mountain view at the wonderful Hotel Elephant, (priced right and in the heart of the old town) and eat great food with super service... we don't like vacations that we have to make excuses for."
http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-tr-letters16-2oct16

Is Ernie Salomon the fellow who had a TV show in Santa Barbara on Public Access TV a few years ago?

still does... http://www.sbchannels.tv/cgi-bin/schedule17/calendar.pl

Well that's interesting.
When I lived over there I used to catch his show every once in awhile and my recollection is that he portrays himself as a "voice of the people" as a "salt of the earth" kind of guy. Oh well.

I understand Ernie's desire to collect rent. I understand his frustrations with independent stores occupying his spaces for short times. It must be hard. He has a grand solution, get someone in with deep pockets in there that WILL NEVER GO AWAY. And, that's the part that scares me the most. SUBWAY WILL NEVER GO AWAY. His decision has a lasting LIFETIME effect on our little town. From my understanding, a Hawaiian woman named Sally who is a vegan and raw foods chef tried to rent that space from Ernie, before all this Subway stuff. Ernie refused her. She, because of the nature of the foods she would be preparing, would not need to alter the space, would not need attentional venting and such. How ideal, but Ernie, who seems not so in tune with the face of Ojai, refused her. He probably didn't understand the huge slow food, raw food, vegan/veg diet movement enjoyed either full or part time by a really large, ever growing population in our town. He probably lacked the vision to understand that people would drive/walk from near and far to seek out vegan/raw food. (Just try to get a seat at Mary's Secret Garden in Ventura at dinner time). Our little town is full of freaky hippies, aging boomers, artist types, conscience families. They fill our streets. It makes us unique and colorful. It's not a bad thing that we have a lot of unspoken people on this post site, showing up at council meetings, passing out petitions. It's a town filled with people who care. Community Involvement is something suggested by everyone as a way to feel connected, live longer, happier. Ours is a dying breed. Bringing in a chain store that will be followed by other chain stores will put the nail in the coffin of the unique voice of Ojai. The reason we attract people from all over the world is because the land is beautiful, our people colorful, our establishments unique. I believe the group pursuing the recall did a noble thing by stepping down, offering an olive branch, saying let's work together for the greater good, our little town. Let's focus on the positive decisions being made by our city council, and the people of Ojai, and not focus on the negative. My wish is that Ernie do the same. He's mad, hurt, discouraged. My hope is that he can let go of the anger and try to work with this funny little town he owns a building in, instead of against it. There is an olive branch waiting for you Ernie, as well.

THANK YOU GINA!! This would make a great editorial for the OVN's. It is so important to be able to see this whole Subway saga from Ernie's point of view, even if we do not agree with him. It is possible that the person who applied prior to Subway was declined because she did not pass a credit check or other legitimated business related concern. You have articulated many great points! Thank you so much!!!

Brilliant. Brilliant. Well said, Gina. And very well written. If what you said is true about the refusal of Sally and her vegan/raw food venture by Ernie, I am angered. My blood is boiling. Tell me it isn't true. It surfaces the utter corruption of the money culture we live and breath in. Maybe Suza is right about the credit angle, but even so it shows the power of money; which not only talks but walks over people. Why does money always trump people in this schizophrenic, hypocritical town (in this case with a little help from Santa Barbara)? Frostie and Mallory come to mind. I lack your civilized, empathetic olive branch style. Learning from you, I will muzzle my anger and not blast away at this sheeple town in my sometimes ranting/raving, egomaniac, diatribal manner. I'm really a gentle soul in person but I will on occasion lose control at a keyboard. Blame the keyboard. Imagine, we could have had healthy food. What do we get? A subway. Cheap, cheap food, hardly worth the paper it's served in. That people can't feel the stupidity down to the marrow of their bones is an indicting barometer of the level of their mental maturity. I hope Mr. Clinton quotes this in his next letter to the OVN. Wake up, Ojai. The wolf is at the door. He just got off the subway from jersey, that is jersey mikes around the corner. Can't you tell a chain around your neck when you feel it? You can't eat money, as Patriarch Midas found out. Try love for real food. You can thrive on that. Preaching to the choir is wasted breath but sometimes it ripples out to the masses; Mr. Clinton and the OVN being an instance of this phenomenon of trickle down effects. Thanks.

I actually read the above post by DL.
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That was well said Gina. I would like Ernest to reconsider this re-ignition of the debate. All this may be mute depending how the moratorium and eventually, the passing of the chain store initiative play out in the permitting process.

Thanks Gina for your comment. Thanks for thoughtfully framing the debate as it currently stands. Mr. Solomon is an absentee landlord who has every right to rent his spaces to whomever he likes. That is, unless the city sees fit to limit certain types of businesses. He and the Subway franchisee are betting that the council will flinch because of their threat of a $200 million lawsuit. They're hoping that their thug-like threats will scare the council into allowing the moratorium to lapse. It is imperative that the council extend the moratorium by June 14th.

I've spoken with Mayor Smith and she has assured me that the council will do just that if they haven't already come up with a formula retail and restaurant ordinance of their own by that time. She told me this outside of Starr Market as I was collecting signatures for the initiative that Kenley submitted. We've collected enough signatures to place the initiative on the November ballot already. We are pushing forward to get 15% of the electorate to sign. When we reach this number, the council can either adopt the initiative as an ordinance wholesale or they can set a special election. What scared me about my conversation with Mayor Smith was that she kept saying "If you sign this[Kenley's Initiative] you're just hedging your bet." I asked what she meant by this and she said that the city would probably be writing a "competing" ordinance of their own. She went on to tell me that the only thing they were debating was whether the moratorium extension/"competing" ordinance should cover the whole city or just the "historic downtown". I was flabbergasted because I had thought that this question was already settled when they voted for the moratorium to cover the whole city. At the original meeting about Rae Hanstad's moratorium, the council discussed the "historic downtown" vs. whole city question and came down on the side of the whole city because Ojai is so small. Now, apparently, they are thinking of backsliding. I brought up to her the fact that if the city were going to write an ordinance regarding chain businesses, shouldn't they have already done so? She said that they probably should have done something before Jersey Mike's came in, but that they didn't and still hadn't until now and, "besides, the ordinance wouldn't have covered Jersey Mike's anyway because it's not in the city's 'historic downtown'". She could see I was becoming worried, so she quickly left.

Allow me to engage in wild speculation right now based on my conversation with Mayor Smith. It would seem that the city is thinking of trying to pass an ordinance that would cover JUST the arcade, and allow chains to populate the rest of the city. That kind of ordinance is tantamount to doing absolutely nothing. Further, her use of the word "competing" leads me to speculate that the city is considering writing their own initiative to compete with Kenley's initiative in a special election, which further leads me to speculate that they have no intention of extending the moratorium OR of adopting Kenley's initiative. Rather, they are going to force a special election where they are going to put forward an initiative that ONLY protects the arcade, probably only the front of the arcade at that.

Anyone who cares about this issue needs to do the following:

Call your city council members and ask that they extend the moratorium, as is, by June 14th for the full year that is allowed under law. Call them whenever you can, repeatedly.

Sign the Formula Retail and Restaurant Business Initiative if you haven't already done so.

Volunteer to help get signatures if you can.

Tell everyone you know about this and make sure they do the same.

I'm curious - what other businesses does he lease space to? And what are their feelings about the enourmous ill-will that will most definitely come from a $200 million dollar lawsuit? I imagine that when even the few pro-Subway citizens find out about such maniacal over-reacting by this landlord, they too will want to boycott Subway just like all of us who oppose it (assuming it ever gets in). His handling of the situation can't be good for the other businesses back there, can it?

To the best of my knowledge Ernie owns all the units in the Matilija Plaza building. Last time I checked when I went into Matilija Mail Call, several others were for lease.

Correction: Last time I checked I saw one other empty space downstairs, facing Matilija Street. Have not checked upstairs or parking lot sides of the building.

Actually, I feel for Mr. Solomon. By any measure, he has a tremendous vacancy rate right now, and his largest renter, Lynda.com, is leaving in July. I'm surprised he passed up Sally's vegan/raw food store. It sounds like a perfect fit for Ojai. But I'm betting she couldn't pay ten years in advance like the worlds largest fast food joint Subway.

It all comes down to the bottom line. The rents in Ojai are very high. It is difficult to start a business and have that kind of overhead right from the outset. I always hear people talking about the free market and how we should just let the free market fix everything. With the high commercial vacancy rate here in Ojai, it looks like the market is telling landlords that they need to think about lowering their rents. Saying something like this is the fastest way I know of to get the free marketeers to clam up. If the deep pocket, national chains are taken out of the equation, the rents on commercial space will have to come down. That is the bottom line, and it is why some people are against an ordinance to limit formula business. It is also why the "let them vote with their dollar" scenario doesn't work. If you really want to "vote with your dollar", and you want to see what that looks like, go anywhere else in California or even the US as see the widespread, deepening, homogenization. Voting with your dollar is a vote for chains, pure and simple. The national chains have more dollars and therefore more votes. If chain stores are allowed to totally infiltrate Ojai, the only winners will be the absentee landlords who will be able to keep their rents artificially high because renters like Subway are willing to come in and pay and signup for 10 years. Either because they run on franchise arrangements that require low positive incomes to stay open or because they are backed by huge corporations that have enough money to run at a loss until all local competition is long gone, chains are the clear "vote with your dollar" winner.

If you like Santa Clarita, or the literally thousands of places like it, don't sign the Formula Retail and Restaurant Business Initiative and don't vote for it when it's on the ballot. If you have no intention of starting an independent, unique business here in Ojai, or if you already have one and like keeping your overhead high, don't sign the petition and don't vote for it. If you want Ojai to stay unique. If you want more independent businesses and you want to protect Ojai's individual character, then sign the petition. Vote for the initiative when it's on the ballot. Even help get signatures. Whatever the outcome, at least it will be arrived at through democracy.

how CAN the Ojai Valley stand up to the thuggery?

what coalitioning and democratization process can allow
us to provide a united front, Valley-Wide, to both these
external demons, and those arising at home?

how can we make the transition, from a City of Ojai
merely talking about a ethical constitution, a whole
policy plan -- and a modest Valley-Wide-Planning forum --
to a permanent body involving all who wish to be
involved, and including all Valley insitutions --

finally articulating, encoding, 'legislating' whole
and true and real values and policies that we can
all live by ... returning the green and quiet and
neighborly values that we all cherish, and once were
able to live by?

in the womb of Goddess Moon ...

From spk's revelations, I'm thinking the city council is playing with fire. Signing the initiative is a hedge? A hedge against a negative majority power play? Will the city actually put their own ideas ahead of an initiative that has garnered more signatures than needed for the council to accept/adopt outright? Will we have to deal with a weak ordinance until the initiative is voted on by the people? Jersey Mike's is not in Historic Ojai? Give me a break. If that is their approach, why bother with this smoke and mirrors approach, and just put up the for sale sign. I hope this is not what is going on, I thought they moved beyond that crippling mentality. Maybe what they are thinking, is finding a way to avoid a reverse slapp suit by Ernest Salomon. Ironic.